In the upcoming months we will be launching our first ever children's book...."Just as Good!" Writing and publishing a children's book has been a dream of mine for several years. When our two children were very young we would read books with them regularly. We believed it would enhance their vocabulary, reading skills and love of books.  "Project Read" and "Book It"  were very good programs offered to our kids too.  With our four Granddaughters, we have also read many, many books to them over the years as many parents and grandparents do. The kids enjoy reading all different types of books with us, even occasionally get to read a book or two that belonged to their mom or dad! 

Retiring in 2024, one of my first visions was to get to it and finally write a children's book. After much research in this area I sat down and started putting my thoughts on paper. I had always thought about a story of a little girl growing up on a small farm with a love of tractors. Why not tell the story of that little girl who has done that and more? So that's exactly the path i would go down, so much fun! As the story was coming together i quickly realized I was telling the story of my wife Mary! 

Writing any book is certainly not an easy task as many of you probably already know. I have learned so much about writing, editing and so much more. With the help of our editor Christina Abt this task has been so much easier. Mary and I met Christina through my sister several years ago. She has been nothing short of amazing at what she does for us and we can't thank her enough for her expertise. 

So you may ask, why did we choose Make A Wish for the charity that will benefit from this book? Good question! For many years we attended the  Bowling Green tractor pull held every year in August. For as many years as we can remember the Make A Wish chapter was very involved working with the event promoters making the event a major fundraiser for them. The fans and pullers always turn out in very large numbers to support this worthy cause. We have donated in many ways including the annual Make A Wish auction held every year in BG on Saturday. Our team has always put kids in the seat of our tractor at events so mom, dad, and grandparents could take their pictures. 

A few years back Mary and I were approached by Make A Wish asking if we could put one of their candidate's in the seat of our tractor, of course we jumped at the chance! The parents arrived at our site and we arranged getting the small child into the cockpit. Seeing the overwhelming joy on that child's face and the tear's in the family's eyes was a defining moment for us and our team. Thinking back, there was not a dry eye in our pit area. So as you may see from reading this, you probably realize why we choose Make A Wish! 

At the time of writing this, our book is now in the hands of an illustrator. We are very excited to see the next steps that will finally bring "Just As Good" to life. We hope to have this book all wrapped up and available for purchase in the upcoming months ahead. Your interest in our book is appreciated and we hope you will enjoy reading it to your children, grandchildren and loved ones. Absolutely 100% of the profits will go directly to Make A Wish!  

Please bookmark our new website and check back in to see when the book reveals will be. Thank you so much for visiting our site! 

***Update June 18 2025***

The book has been published and it is off to print! Be the first to get your own copy/copies and pre order now! Click the pre order link at the bottom of the home page! 

Mike 

***Update July 1 2025*** 

Wow.....thanks everyone for all the pre orders of the book so far! Books will be going out to at least 14 states by mail the end of the month! Yesterday we recieved our "book proof" and it looks amazing! We put in a very large order and expect to have the order in by the end of July. All the pre orders will be signed by Mary and I, packaged and sent out asap. We will be including a small suprise gift to all of you as our way of saying thank you for your orders. 

The first live "book signing" will be during the Langford Tractor Pull August 2nd and 3rd 2025. Come on out to the Langford Northeast Nationals to see some great pulling action and pick up some copies of our new book. We will be in the pits signing the books and very much are looking forward to seeing you there! This is the only event we pull at in NY so our team is always happy to see all of our local fans! 

We head down to the National Tractor Pulling championships in Bowling Green Ohio August 14-16 and will be doing a major book launch with Make A Wish there. Every year we enjoy seeing our pulling family in BG, it is truly an amazing event. We will have plenty of books at both events so be sure to stop by and say hello! 

Thank you! 

Mike